


Letting the cold in

by cashmeare



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Sleepy Bois Inc, Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Angst, Bruises, Bullying, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Hypothermia, Medical, OOC, Other, Sbi is a family, Sickfic, Tommy is 12, Winter, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-04
Updated: 2020-11-04
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:34:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,682
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27391294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cashmeare/pseuds/cashmeare
Summary: Tommy’s 12-year-old self dislikes mornings. Scratch that, Tommy hates mornings. It's always far too cold and no thanks Dad, he wouldn’t like to get out of his warm blankets and go to school, no, not at all. Especially not now that his bullies had gotten braver. They'd been going so far as to punch and kick him in the stomach a few times, leaving a collection of gnarly, mottled bruises across his stomach, chest, and back. So, Tommy devises a plan to turn his measly little head cold into something that will let him stay home and heal for a while. The cold British weather, however, has another plan.Or; Tommy is being bullied and accidentally gives himself hypothermia in an attempt to get his dad, (Phil), to let him stay home. Phil, Wilbur, and Techno are worried.
Relationships: Dave | Technoblade & Wilbur Soot & TommyInnit & Phil Watson, Tommyinnit & Tubbo
Comments: 28
Kudos: 1233





	1. It all builds up

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you all for such kind comments on my last fic! This fic involves a description of hypothermia, as well as bullying which results in bruising. Please heed these warnings and read at your own risk. Also, Tommy is 12 in this fic, his brothers are Techno who is 17, Wilbur who is 18, and Phil is their father. The characters are OOC for their real-life personas as that's not what they were based on. Also keep in mind that fear and sickness can make someone act far below their age, which is why Tommy appears much younger than he actually is. I hope you enjoy the fic! <3

Tommy’s 12-year-old self dislikes mornings. Scratch that, Tommy hates mornings. He could come up with some mushy stupid excuse about how he has to leave behind his dreams and accept the fact that reality had come knocking on his door once again to crush all of his hopes, but in actual fact, it’s just always far too cold and, in his humble opinion, his bed is warmer, and no thanks Dad, he wouldn’t like to get out of his warm blankets and go to school, no, not at all. Alas, he’s forced to. Every single morning. However, there is the rare occasion where Tommy is ill. Now, of course, one would not wish to be ill, but Tommy was exhausted, he was sick and tired of school, correction, the people at his school and would rather be hospitalized with pneumonia or something than have to spend another day at the hellhole that was his middle school. Tommy wasn’t the most loved at school, not by a long shot. Before a couple of weeks ago the jerks wouldn’t ever go far enough to bruise him, they would only taunt him and steal his lunch money, of which was already more than enough for him to not want to go to school. However, recently they’d gotten braver, shoving Tommy over, causing grazed knees and hands, even going so far as to punch and kick him in the stomach a few times, leaving a collection of gnarly, mottled bruises across his stomach, chest, and back, something that he had been hiding from his dad and brothers, lest they find out and think he's weak. 

Which is what led to Tommy’s current situation. Walking home from school in less than freezing temperatures as snow and what felt suspiciously like hail battered down on him, despite Phil, his dad, consistently telling him that he wasn’t allowed to walk home in this sort of weather, especially not at the moment, in fear of him worsening his minor head cold that he “wasn’t allowed to stay home from because he didn’t have a fever”, which was absolutely stupid in Tommy’s opinion. (Also because in Phil's opinion Tommy was still far too young to be walking home alone, but he decides not to tell Tommy that in order to avoid another meltdown). However, after some research on a private browser on the library computer at lunch, Tommy happened to discover that being in cold temperatures may “adversely impact the body’s immune system”, or, in Tommy’s terms, turn this head cold into something that would allow him to stay home for a while and subsequently let his current bruises heal before more can be added on. So, after telling Wilbur and Techno that he didn’t need a ride home as he already had one with Tubbo and telling Phil that he was getting a ride home with Wilbur and Techno, he was on his way, walking home in some of England's worst weather with only the stupid blue puffy coat that his dad bought him at the start of winter and a thin sweater underneath it to shield him from the cold. He started shaking quite badly a while ago, which he doesn’t think is a good thing, and he can’t feel his fingers, as in, they’re blue and the pockets of his coat are providing little to no warmth. Tommy may be starting to regret this decision, but it was far too late to go back now. He was almost home and he would rather put off the verbal lecturing that he was going to receive from his dad for as long as he could, thank you very much. So, despite his clearly worsening physical state, (he decides that it must be his head cold that's causing his increasingly painful headache, stuffy nose, weakness, and blurry vision), he continues on through the intensifying weather conditions.

His morale brightens when he sees his house in the distance, but then instantly dims as he sees his clearly worried dad pacing on the front porch, his older brothers Wilbur and Techno standing looking just as concerned in the doorway. Uh oh. They haven’t noticed him yet and Tommy finds himself hoping that they don’t. Tommy’s hopes clearly don’t work as they all notice him as soon as he nears the house, however, he soon finds himself grateful for this, because his vision is starting to go even blurrier and he can’t really feel the cold anymore, and he doesn’t think that's a good thing. Immediately upon seeing him coming up the cobble driveway, Phil is rushing up to him, not a minute too late apparently, as his numb legs finally give out and he stumbles straight into his dad's warm arms. His dad catches him with a panicked, “shit”, looking back to Wilbur for help, as unfortunately due to Phils smaller height, he couldn’t exactly carry Tommy’s, admittedly, small 5’5 frame inside, Wilbur however, who stands at an impressive 6' 5, could. Upon seeing his dad looking to him for help as his baby brother hung pretty much limply in his arms, Wilbur rushes over, carefully gathering his little brother in his arms bridal style, Tommy’s head lolling over to rest against Wilbur's chest. Upon feeling eyes on him, Wilbur looks down to see Tommy staring right back at him with half-lidded eyes. 

“You’re alright Toms, I’ve got you”, Wilbur reassures him. He then proceeds to make his way back to the front door as quickly as he can without falling over, Techno standing holding the door open as Phil walks next to the two brothers worriedly. All Tommy knew was that he was an absolute idiot and by god, it wasn’t worth staying off of school for a couple of days if he had to feel like this to achieve that. The family of four made their way inside, with the two older brothers looking to their dad for help on what to do. Phil quickly directs Wilbur to lie Tommy down on the couch, and to then go and get every warm blanket they had in the house as well as a new pair of clothes for Tommy, specifically warm ones, as well as picking up a thermometer on his way back. Wilbur, upon softly placing Tommy down on the couch, hurries off to do so. In the meantime, Phil instructs Techno to get the fireplace in the living room going, crank the heating up, fill a bowl with warm water and bring washcloths with it, Techno scrabbles to do so. As the 2 rush around, Phil swiftly makes his way to Tommy’s side and begins to strip the boy of his freezing, wet clothes, starting with the blue puffy jacket that he knows Tommy hates. Cursing as he finds that his youngest son had only been wearing a thin sweater underneath, having hoped that he would at least have been wearing something warm under the thin jacket. It’s upon removing said thin sweater that Phil stops dead in his tracks, mortified by the impressive array of old and new bruises covering his youngest son's chest and stomach. He takes a deep breath, understanding that there were more important things to deal with now and he could figure this out when his son wasn’t at risk of going into hypothermic shock. He continues on to strip Tommy of the thin blue jeans he’d been wearing, leaving the boy in his underwear as they, thankfully, weren’t wet. He rips off the boys soaking socks and chucks them in the steadily growing pile of wet clothes. Upon seeing his son's intense shivering and rapidly blueing skin, he yells for Wilbur to hurry, the boy in question barreling into the room with his arms full. He quickly chucks the thermometer to Phil and then moves to Tommy’s side. He, much like Phil did only moments prior, stops in shock at the bruises covering Tommy, and opens his mouth to alert his dad. “I know”, Phil interrupts him, “We’ll deal with it tomorrow, just start dressing him”. Wilbur begins to dress Tommy in the warmest clothes he could find, starting with socks and moving up. 

Meanwhile, Phil gently moves his son's head to the side with a warm hand on his forehead and places the thermometer in his ear, when it beeps he removes it and immediately curses. Wilbur looks at him in question and he responds by telling him; “34.5, we need to get him warm or we’re going to have to get him to a hospital”. 

Wilbur starts to dress Tommy quicker upon hearing this and Phil joins in, propping Tommy up with one arm and carefully threading his head and arms through a warm long sleeve shirt which he’s pretty certain is Wilburs, judging by the way the sleeves hang over his fingertips. He lays the boy back down and then begins layering him with blankets. It’s at this point that Techno returns with the warm water and cloths and upon placing them next to Phil, heads straight to the fireplace. Once Phil receives the bowl of warm water he begins to dip the cloths in it and lay them over Tommy, on his forehead, behind his neck, on his stomach, wherever he could. As he's doing this, Tommy begins to whine, the warm cloths feeling fire hot on his freezing skin, Wilbur, who had been just watching Phil work, hears Tommy’s quiet whines of pain and moves to sit by his head, stroking his hair back and quietly whispering to him about his day to distract him from what Phil was doing. Eventually, Techno finishes with the fire and joins Wilbur by Tommy's head, interjecting at random points to say funny things that get tiny smiles out of Tommy and occasional chuckles from Wilbur. As Phil finishes, Wilbur grabs the discarded thermometer and much like Phil did earlier, gently places his hand on Tommy’s forehead and moves his head to the side, placing the thermometer in his baby brothers ear and hoping that his temperature has gone up, lest they have to take him to the hospital. Tommy whines at this but is quickly shushed by both Wilbur and Techno as Wilbur continues to stroke back his hair with his free hand. 

“Shhh Toms, just a minute, I’m almost done”, Wilbur once again reassures him. As he removes the thermometer he breathes a sigh of relief and turns to Phil who’s looking at him questioningly; “35.7, it’s going up, no hospital”. The 2 brothers and dad breathe out a collective sigh of relief. It’s at this point that Tommy’s shivering has begun to slowly increase, (a good sign), and his ability to think has slowly returned. With this, he realizes just how cold and scared he is and before he can help it, his eyes fill with tears and he's whining out for his dad. Phil, upon hearing this, asks Wilbur to lift Tommy up gently to a sitting position for a moment, as he does, Phil slides in behind Tommy and shifts so that his son is in between his legs. Once he's situated, Wilbur slowly brings Tommy down to lie on Phil's chest, helping him wriggle so that he’s laying on his stomach with his head on his dad's chest and facing Techno and Wilbur, readjusting the warm cloths once he's situated. Once he's comfortable, Wilbur starts to rub his back up and down as Techno simply sits and watches him, his dad stroking his hair and humming under his breath. Tommy, despite still being freezing, feels warm on the inside and lets his eyes drift shut. 

Techno remembers reading somewhere that you shouldn’t let someone whos hypothermic, even mildly, sleep, because when you go to sleep, your breathing slows down due to low heart rate meaning your blood flow slows down, and when you have hypothermia, you’re supposedly in a state where your vital organs might not end up with the required blood flow. Techno quickly thanks his weirdly photographic memory and reaches over to run his fingers against his brother's cheek; 

“You can’t go to sleep Tom, we need to wait until your temperature gets back to normal,” Tommy whines in response but is quickly shushed by both his brothers and his dad. 

“Why don’t one of you tell him a story to keep him awake?” Phil asks Techno and Wilbur. Wilbur nods his head and begins to tell a story of a brave little boy who goes on an adventure and finds himself in danger, where 3 of his older friends have to save him, Techno interjecting at times to make the story “more age-appropriate, he’s not 6 Wilbur”, Wilbur ignores him and continues with his story. Phil still stroking back his youngest son's hair, Wilbur's hand never ceasing in rubbing his little brothers back and Techno occasionally rubbing his baby brother's cheek when he could see his eyes starting to slip shut. 

Eventually, after a solid 45 minutes, as Wilbur runs out of ideas to keep his story going, Phil quietly asks Techno to pass him the thermometer. As Phil takes his temperature, the 2 older brothers continue talking to their brother through the, truthfully, uncomfortable experience, shushing him gently as he whines. When the thermometer beeps, Phil removes it and glances at the numbers displayed on the screen, finally feeling his shoulders relax at what he sees. “36.3”, he tells the other boys so and they too feel their shoulders lose some tension. Tommy, at this point, finally feels strong enough to speak; “Can I sleep now?”, he asks. The 2 brothers look up at their dad for confirmation who, upon seeing their questioning looks, quickly speaks. “In a second Toms, how are you feeling first? Are you confused? Does anywhere hurt besides your stomach and back?”, the boy in question shakes his head in response but upon realizing that that probably wouldn’t satisfy his protective father, whispers a small “no and no” in response. Phil decides that he’s happy with this response and before letting his youngest boy fall asleep on him lets him know, “we’ll talk about what happened in the morning, sleep well buddy”, and so, Tommy finally allows himself to fall asleep, his brothers rubbing his back and his dad's heartbeat playing steadily in his ear as his large hand strokes his hair, finally warm and content. 

Wilbur, once certain that Tommy is fully asleep, carefully picks his brother up off of his dad's chest, blankets and all, and carries him like he would when Tommy was younger, (Tommy's legs wrapped around his back, his arms around his neck, his head nestled in Wilburs shoulder), to his dad's room, where he assumes they’ll all be spending the night in case something were to happen, the other 2 following behind. Wilbur gently places Tommy down in the middle of the king-sized bed, Phil immediately getting in next to the young boy and cradling him to his chest. The other 2 get in as well, Wilbur on Tommy’s other side, enclosing the boy from all sides, and Techno under Phil's other arm, also keeping a protective eye on his baby brother. The 3, having been scared far more than they would like to admit, find the adrenaline rush of the past 2 hours wearing off and quickly join their youngest in dreamland.


	2. It all falls down

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bright side: Tommy is sick enough that he probably won't be going to school for a long while.  
> Bad side: His family have seen his bruises and are determined to get to know how they got there. 
> 
> Or; Tommy finally admits to the bullying which leads to a breakdown and some warm family fluff.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you all enjoyed the last chapter! This chapter contains a reasonably detailed description of a panic attack as well as a description of bullying and self-deprecating thoughts. Please keep this in mind as you read the chapter! Enjoy <3

Tommy awakes to sunlight streaming in through the windows, his dad is absent from the bed, as is Techno, but Will is still with him, holding his head in his lap and humming a song under his breath that Tommy recognizes to be of his own creation. Upon looking down and seeing his baby brother's eyes looking back at him, he smiles and greets him with a quiet good morning. Tommy, now more awake, notices the pounding headache that he has and how stuffy his nose is, along with this, his entire world is spinning and he can feel his chest tightening with each breath. As soon as he tries to respond to his brother, a hacking cough finds its way past his lips and he feels his brother haul him into a sitting position as he coughs so hard tears stream down his face. His brother continues to rub his back through his fit and gently coaches him to breathe, brushing away the tears that stream involuntarily down his face. His dad bursts through the door but upon seeing that Tommy’s coughs are depleting, allows himself to slow down and make his way to the bed, picking up a glass of water off the side table and helping his youngest down some. After his coughing has stopped, Tommy leans back against his older brother, feeling a wave of exhaustion hit him despite just waking up. His brother and dad seem to realize this as they lie him back down and cover him back up with his blankets, his brother sitting next to his head and stroking his hair, his dad on the edge of the bed looking down at him. They quietly tell him to get some more rest and that when he wakes back up he can have some food and medicine, and with this, Tommy finds himself drifting back to sleep, the sound of his brothers humming lulling him off to dreamland. 

The sun is much higher in the sky when Tommy awakes next, and his brother is missing from his side. He immediately realizes that he feels worse, which was something he didn’t quite think was possible, but alas, here he was. He also realizes how urgently he needs to pee, which he thinks is strange considering how little he's had to drink in the last 24 hours, but still, he drags himself into a sitting position, stopping as the world spins around him. Eventually, he decides that he’s ready to stand up, taking a few shaky steps and getting to his door before the world tilts dangerously and he quickly understands that he may very well be becoming well acquainted with the floor if he doesn’t sit down soon. His oldest brother, however, is conveniently coming up round the bend of the stairs, and upon seeing his sick brother swaying in his doorway bounds up the last few steps and rushes to Tommy’s side.

“Bathroom”, Tommy manages to mutter before his brother can say anything to him, and the two shuffle their way down the hall to the brother's shared bathroom. Wilbur deposits his little brother at the toilet, quickly checking that he's alright to go on his own, and as Tommy sends him as scathing a look as he can manage in his current sickly state, hightails it out of the bathroom with a cackle, leaving the door cracked open in case his brother needs him in a hurry. After some time, the door squeaks open, and Wilbur quickly moves to his brother's side, and again they shuffle back down the hallway to Tommy’s room. 

Once Tommy’s safely sitting back on his bed, Wilbur lets him know that he’s just going to go and get him some cough medicine as well as grabbing Techno and Phil. Tommy nods his head and tries to ignore the nervousness that's begun to swell up in the pit of his stomach. He’s desperately clinging on to the hope that his dad hadn’t seen the bruises, but judging by the fact that he’s wearing an entirely new set of clothes from yesterday, he figures he’s clinging onto false hope. Tommy hopes that he can just play it off as him and Tubbo play-fighting too rough or something of the sort, the last thing he wants is his brothers and dad to think that he’s weak, or that he can’t handle himself. Because he can, thank you very much. 

It’s upon seeing his two brothers and father standing in the doorway that Tommy realizes that any hope he had of lying to them, is completely out the window. The look on their faces could only be described as love-fueled protectiveness and concern, and Tommy feels himself melt as he meets each of their eyes as they make their way into his room.

Soon enough, they’re all sitting around him and Tommy’s being passed a small cup of syrupy cough medicine as well as what he assumes to be some form of Paracetamol. He downs the foul-tasting cough medicine first, washing it down with some water and then taking the Paracetamol after. His dad then reaches out and feels his forehead, Tommy leans into the touch, the hand cooling on his burning skin. His dad frowns at what he feels and picks up the thermometer off the side table, gently using the hand on his son's forehead to shift his head to the side, Tommy whines but like the night before, is shushed by Phil who strokes his hair back as the thermometer does its job. Eventually, after what feels like hours to Tommy but was actually only two minutes, in reality, the machine beeps and Phil removes it and looks down at the small screen, frowning at the “38.6”, that’s flashing on the screen.

“Techno can you go and dampen a flannel with cold water for me? Make sure you wring it out”, Phil asks. Techno nods his head and gets up from the bed, leaving the room. Phil then turns to Tommy; “Alright, hop up for a sec, I want you back under the covers”, he orders his youngest. Tommy quickly complies, but soon realizes that he was probably a bit too quick in getting up, as his world spins around him once again, his vision darkening around the edges for a second. He faintly sees both Wilbur and his dad reach out for him in a mad scramble to stop him from falling, his brother making it to his side first and letting him lean against him whilst Phil quickly pulls back the doona and sheets on Tommy’s bed. Wilbur helps him back to his bed and Phil props up his pillows behind him so that he’s not completely lying flat, before covering him back up with the blankets, tucking him in. 

It’s at this point that Techno reenters the room with a cold flannel in hand, stopping briefly at the overly concerned looks on his older brother and dad's faces before clocking the fact that his baby brother looks far paler than when he left the room, putting two and two together. He continues forward and hands the flannel to Phil, who directs Tommy to lean his head back slightly so that the flannel can balance on his forehead. The boy in question sighs in relief at the cold compress that begins to cool his skin. He opens his eyes which had briefly shut, looking straight at three pairs of concerned faces who are all waiting for him to say something. 

“I’m sorry”, he starts, “for yesterday I mean. I know that that was probably the last thing you needed on top of all of the stress that you guys already have, you really don’t have to look after me I’m ok to-”, he stops as Phil cuts him off. 

“What on earth are you talking about? We’re just worried Tommy, we’re your family, of course, we’re going to look after you when you’re ill. But that’s not the point of this conversation, I think you know that. We need to know where the bruises came from Toms.” Tommy’s shoulders drop at his dad's words. Of course, they know, there's no way they didn’t see the bruises last night. Despite having already prepared himself for this, Tommy still finds himself scrambling to pull together a believable excuse as to why he’s covered in bruises. 

“Oh, those? They’re nothing, really”, he stumbles over his words, “one of my school mates just pushed me as a joke and I accidentally fell against the locker, it’s honestly nothing, I can deal with-”, he’s cut off once again. This time not by his dad, but by Techno. 

“Cut the shit Tommy”, Tommy’s shoulders drop once again, “I’ve seen bruises from falling into a locker, and that ain’t them. Someone beat you up. So you can either tell us who, or I’ll figure it out myself”, Technos voice is stern, but it’s easy to tell that it’s coming from a place of concern. Tommy drops his head, the gigs up. He knows it is. But how is he to tell his family that he’s been letting some stupid boys at school get the better of him? He’s supposed to be Tommyinnit, the biggest man of them all! At least that’s what he’s always claimed. 

“They’re in the grade above me”, he starts, his voice quiet, defeated. His family’s face drops at the words. “I don’t really know why they don’t like me, guess they can see through the stupid brave act I put on, guess they realized that I’m actually just a weak little baby hiding behind his brothers”. It’s Wilbur who interrupts next, his voice soft, comforting;

“Tommy, what? You’re not weak and you’re certainly not hiding behind u-”

“You’re joking right?”, Tommy asks, “I am nothing without you two, and they can see that. All I am is the loud little brother of the infamous Wilbur and Techno, the annoying youngest child of the great Phil”, sarcasm drips from Tommy’s tone, “I will never amount to anything that’s even close to what you three have, and they saw that! Then, I can’t even do the one thing they ask of me, I can’t even keep my goddamn mouth shut. I’m honestly surprised you guys haven’t left like they said you would, but you will right? Because they’re right, they’ve been right this entire time, I’ve just been too arrogant to realize it.” 

The room is deathly quiet at the end of Tommy’s spiel. His breathing is harsh and he can feel his chest tightening, a body racking cough making its way up past his lips, he feels his eyes fill with tears, both from the cough and his previous speech. He thought that his lungs would fill once his coughing fit was over, but it’s over and he still can’t breathe. They know, they know and oh my god he can’t breathe. His vision is blurring and it feels like his head has just been dunked underwater and his hands are gripping his hair, and oh my god he can’t breathe. He can see his brothers and dad's mouths moving but it’s like they’re just miming to him. The walls are closing in on him, the walls are closing in on him he has to leave, he has to get out.

So he does, he rips his blankets off and avoids his family's hands scrambling to catch him. Before they can get a grip on him, he’s up and out the door, barreling down the stairs into the backyard, his feet bare on the snow under him, cold air attacking his lungs. He stops for a brief moment only to feel warm hands grabbing his shoulders, he attempts to get himself free of the large hands but finds himself spun around, his head meeting what can only be his dad's warm cashmere sweater, he struggles. Pushing against his dad’s chest. 

“Let me go”, he whimpers, “just let me go, please, please”, he weakly pounds against his dad's chest. “Shhh”, is Phil's response. “It’s okay Toms, it’s okay, it’s all going to be okay”. It’s with these words that Tommy collapses against his father's chest, sobbing harder than he feels he ever has, gripping on to his father's sweater with iron tight fists. His dad simply holds him as they sink to wet ground. 

Phil holds his youngest boy, cradling him against his chest, tears filling his eyes at seeing his normally vibrant boy break down so hard. They sit in the middle of the backyard, Wilbur, and Techno watching from the backdoor, snow falling around them. Tommy begins to mutter; “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry”. Phil feels his tears begin to drop at this and he’s quick to bundle his son tighter in his arms, quietly reassuring him that there's no reason for him to be apologizing, that everything was going to be okay, telling him that he loves him so, so much. 

Eventually, Tommy's sobs turn into soft cries, which turn into soft whimpers, which turn into hiccups. After some time, Phil can feel Tommy begin to shiver and it’s with this that he begins to stand, helping his son up with him. They shuffle towards the house, Wilbur meeting them halfway and helping his dad by letting Tommy lean against his side. 

“Go get yourself warm”, Wilbur tells Phil, “Techno and l will get Tommy dry and we can all meet up in the living room”. It’s not so much a question rather than a statement and Phil wonders when his oldest boy got so grown up. Phil reluctantly parts from Tommy with a stroke of his hair and a gentle kiss on his forehead, Tommy weakly smiling at the action. 

Halfway up the stairs, he begins to cough again and Wilbur and Techno are stuck quickly hauling him up the stairs and into the bathroom. Once there, they leave for a quick second before returning and providing him with a warm towel, some track pants and a sweater, (that he’s pretty certain is Wilburs), and a firm reminder to call them should he need them for anything. They leave the door cracked open and wait outside. They stand silently, taking a deep breath in for the first time since what feels like forever. Glancing at each other, they both allow a weak smile to cross their lips, knowing that things were going to be okay now. 

Tommy eventually finishes getting changed and pushes the door to the bathroom open, smiling a small smile at his two brothers as they take the wet clothes and towel from his arms and lead him back downstairs, both ready to catch him should he stumble. They make their way to the couch, seeing Phil already sitting there under a thick blanket, the fireplace lit. He smiles at them and lifts the blanket up, clearly inviting them to join him. Tommy takes his left, Wilbur next to him and Techno on Phil's other side, their usual formation. Phil quietly thanks himself for getting such a big couch. All is quiet for a while, the four basking in the warm glow of the fireplace and the comfort of having each other so close. It’s Techno who breaks the silence. 

“I know what it’s like to feel weak Tom, to feel like there's a reason as to why they’re hurting you. But believe me, there isn’t. You’re a brave kid who happens to be the light of our lives. Our worlds don’t shine without you, Tommy. I’m sorry you’ve felt like you’re in our shadows, and when we’re all less tired, I promise we’ll figure out how to fix that. But you’re not weak. Ok? The fact that you managed to deal with this all on your own is proof enough of that. I can’t tell you why people are such assholes, they probably don’t even know themselves. But what I can tell you, is that you don’t deserve any of the shit they put you through, none of it. I, we, love you so, so much. Don’t you ever forget that.” 

Tommy is quiet for a long moment, taking in all that his brother said. Before he gets a chance to talk, Wilbur takes over. 

“Ok for starters, I think that was the most I’ve ever heard Techno talk at any one time”, Tommy giggles at this, and the others all smile, Wilbur's voice softening before he continues, “but he’s right Toms. About all of it, especially about not deserving it. They’re not right, either, by the way. You’re not weak and we’re not going to leave you. God knows how we’d get on without you. We love you far too much to ever leave you. You’re our little bro, who else are we going to annoy if we don’t have you around?”

Tommy is once again quiet, still taking in everything that’s being said to him. Unsurprisingly it’s his dad who says exactly what he’s been wanting to hear this entire time. 

“You’re enough as you are Tom. You’re not just Wilbur or Technos brother, or my son, you’re Tommy, and that is more than enough. Whoever says otherwise, clearly doesn’t deserve to be a part of your day. What these boys have done to you will never be excusable, and I promise you we’re going to sort that out. But for right now, you just know that being just Tommy is enough, okay? We’re so, so proud of you and we love you so, so much, alright?” 

Tommy feels his eyes fill with tears. He knows that everything isn’t okay again. For one, he’s still sick as a dog and they haven’t even spoken about him accidentally almost killing himself by getting hypothermia in a stupid attempt to avoid his bullies. He knows that there's still an uncomfortable conversation with his school's principal to be had, that he’s probably going to be dealing with the insecurities that his bullies have drilled into his head for a long while. But here, laying against his dad's side, with his brothers next to him, comfortable in the knowledge that they’re here with him for the long run, he finds himself taking a deep breath, his lungs filling with warm air, and for the first time in a long while, he feels safe, he feels ready to wake up and enjoy the morning. As he drifts off to sleep, he mutters a quiet, “I love you all too”, and the others find themselves smiling at each other. Eventually, the three remaining family members find themselves joining their youngest in dreamland. Content knowing that their boy is safe and protected with them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you all enjoyed my second fic! Please feel free to leave any constructive criticism or requests below. Have a great day :)


End file.
